


unaccounted for

by eltheric



Series: variables of deviancy [2]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, Post-Pacifist Best Ending (Detroit: Become Human), Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-07-31
Packaged: 2019-06-14 02:10:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15378426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eltheric/pseuds/eltheric
Summary: In which becoming deviant isn't as simple as it's made out to be for android unit RK900-1, designation: Nines.





	1. starting mismatched

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> important: new to the series? if yes, then check out the previous fic! [mission parameters](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15216347/chapters/35291549) gives a bit of backstory to this fic, as well as explains my characterization of nines. it isn't necessary to read, and you could certainly understand this fic without it, but it is highly recommended if you want to experience and understand the full scope of the story.

His system exited standby mode, and he immediately wished it hadn’t. Alas, he’d set himself to automatically exit sleep replication at 0530 sharp. He opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling. His interface showed him the date and time, but was unable to show him the weather due to his offline status.

_0530, December 23rd, 2039_

Today was Nines’ first day of work. Technically. He was… not exactly looking forward to it. It wasn’t that he wasn’t looking forward to the job itself, no, he was extremely curious to begin his work as a detective. It was the fact that he had been partnered with _Detective Gavin Reed_. The human was less than happy with the situation, and Nines was as well. But considering Nines’ already delicate situation regarding obtaining a job at the DCPD, he wasn’t really in any place to object.

Connor had actually _winced_ when Fowler told Nines that he’d be working with Reed.

_“Captain Fowler, may I suggest—”_

_“No. Connor, you know how backlogged Gavin is with his cases. This- Nines would be perfect for the job.”_   The captain had waved his hand, _“Dismissed. You’re still supposed to be on leave, Connor. Don’t make me get Hank to kick your ass out of here.”_

_“Understood, Captain.”_

Captain Fowler had looked over at Nines. _“And I expect you in here by sun-up tomorrow.”_

He furrowed his brows at the memory. It was still completely dark out; Nines had time to get ready and collect himself before taking the bus to the downtown station. Full sunrise wasn’t until 0759.

_Estimated departure time: 0600_

Nines smoothly got out of bed and promptly made it, although there wasn’t much to make. He didn’t move in his sleep, slept on his back, and kept the sheets as neat as possible. All he did was realign the pillows and refold the blanket.

Satisfied with his work, he moved on to getting his outfit (singular) from his closet. He put on his dress jeans and his high collared shirt, leaving his CyberLife jacket still hanging for the moment as he checked his appearance in the mirror. Nines met his own icy gaze in the reflection as he buttoned up his shirt and tucked it in, securing his dress jeans with a belt. He turned his head and saw that the back of his hair was slightly messy. After smoothing it down with a hand and putting on his jacket, he felt pleased with how he looked.

Despite no longer belonging to CyberLife, he still wore his jacket. It had been custom made for him, after all, and was designed to keep out the winter cold without being bulky. If he _also_ wore it because he still found comfort in the jacket’s familiarity, nobody but Connor had to know.

Now that he was ready to go:

> **OBJECTIVE** : CHECK ON RK800-61, “CAL”

Nines attempted to bring a smile to his face in the mirror, but was unable to. It wasn’t natural; he was still a machine. Straightening his jacket, he left his room and walked across the hallway to Cal’s room. After one, two knocks on the door, Nines waited for an answer.

“Yes?” sounded the RK800’s voice from inside the room.

“It’s RK—” _No_ , he wasn’t supposed to go by that designation anymore, “Nines.”

“Come in.”

Nines opened the door to Cal’s room, and instantly found the temperature warmer. The space heater that the RK800 had really did do wonders; maybe Nines should obtain one as well. Cal was lounging on his daybed, journal and pen in hand. Besides a desk, chair, and daybed, his room was still rather empty. He’d only been at Jericho for about a week now, but Nines had no doubt that with time, Cal’s room would be overflowing with trinkets and various items.

“First day?” Cal asked, looking up from his journaling. Nines still found it odd; Cal had taken up on the hobby so quickly after Josh had suggested it. Journaling was unnecessary for androids, since they didn’t forget, yet Cal seemed to find comfort in it. “Are we going to take a picture to commemorate the occasion?”

>TAKE PICTURE  
>DON’T TAKE PICTURE

Nines thought about it for a moment, but then realized how utterly _ridiculous_ it would be to take a picture when he and Cal could always just replay today from their memories.

“Why would we take a picture,” Nines asked, his tone flat as usual.

“I was attempting sarcasm.”

_Oh_.

~~> TAKE PICTURE~~  
~~> DON’T TAKE PICTURE~~

“You know,” Cal spoke again, “While you get to do the job you were designed for, I’m not even allowed to leave Jericho.”

“Yet. You’re only bound here for three more days,” Nines countered, “I don’t understand why—”

“Even after they let me leave the premises, I will never be allowed to work in the DPD, alongside you.” Cal’s tone was suddenly cold, and Nines tilted his head at his statement.

“Is it because of—”

“Yes,” Cal smiled, but his eyes held a deep hatred, “Apparently, kidnapping and torturing their star detective makes me ineligible to work in their department; even after I said ‘sorry’.” Cal scoffed, “Connor forgave me, but that doesn’t matter when you’re deemed _mentally unstable_ and _unsuitable_ for the line of work.”

Nines paused, and considered the possibility of being barred from investigative work. The thought was frightening. Newly being titled as a detective was the only thing that currently kept his life together. Without it? Nines… Nines didn’t know what he would do. There wasn’t any other job that would fit him.

“What are you going to do?” Nines asked, and was shocked to hear genuine worry in his own voice. _That_ was new.

Cal snapped his journal closed. “I’m considering going into the private detective business. While I may not be allowed to work in the Detroit Police Department, there’s nothing barring me from working alongside them. After all, who knows when you’ll need an outsider for a case.” Cal winked with the statement. “It’s not the same as working with you, being your investigative partner, but I suppose it’ll be close enough.”

Nines nodded in response, and thought about what else he could say to Cal. There wasn’t any protocol in his system for _casual conversation_. To put it informally, he was ‘on his own’ in this situation, and he was completely out of his area of expertise. After a moment of processing, he saw his interface helpfully display the few ideas he’d come up with thus far.

>TALK ABOUT NEW JOB  
>ASK ABOUT JOURNAL  
>GO TO WORK

Nines didn’t exactly want to talk about his new job. It would just seem like ‘rubbing salt in the wound’ for Cal, and Nines didn’t want to broach the uncomfortable topic again. Asking about the journal seemed intrusive as well, but his only other option was to leave the room after only two minutes after he entered it. And that seemed… unprofessional.

> **ASK ABOUT JOURNAL**

“What are you… journaling about.”

Cal looked down at the small, leather journal in his hands. It was rather old fashioned, if Nines was being honest.

“I’ve taken to cataloguing the events that happen within my day, as Josh suggested.”

Nines nodded as his system alerted him that there was a 62% chance that Cal was lying. He had a tendency to do that, and Nines hadn’t yet figured out _why_. From the smallest of things, such as what shows Cal watched on the television in one of the recreation rooms, to moments such as the current one: the RK800 would _lie_. It baffled Nines. He wondered where Cal had picked up that habit, or if it developed when Cal had been pretending to be a machine. Maybe living a lie made telling the truth difficult, in the long run. Nines wasn’t exactly sure yet; he’d question Cal about it later.

> **OBJECTIVE COMPLETED** : CHECK ON RK800-61, “CAL”

> **GO TO WORK**

Without saying goodbye, Nines turned around and left the room, closing the door behind him. He went through his mental checklist as he stood in the hallway, and realized that he’d left his phone and badge on his nightstand. Now, there was one thing that was possible for the RK900 to forget, the phone. As an android, Nines had never needed a phone before, but now that his communications Biocomponent was destroyed and put him permanently offline? The phone was a necessity. Connor had ended up buying it for him, a sparkling new iPhone 9k. Connor’s reasoning for buying the expensive new model for Nines? _Your name matches it_.

He found himself smiling at the memory, but the moment he realized he was smiling, it felt _wrong_. His face fell back to its default, expression blank as he grabbed his phone and badge. He mounted the badge onto his belt’s badge holder and checked his phone as he walked down the hallway to the elevator. The weather forecast predicted heavy snowfall all day, with the high reaching 28°F and lows dipping all the way down to 17°F. The abnormally cold weather this year wasn’t lifting in the slightest.

Stepping into the elevator, Nines selected the touchscreen button to go to the ground floor and checked his notifications.

_[04:45] **Connor** : Good morning, Nines. I wish you the best of luck with your first day at the precinct. If you require assistance of any kind, please don’t hesitate to call me or ask Hank. He’s heading in at 10 today. _  
_[04:46] **Connor** : Also, please don’t let any of Detective Reed’s comments ‘get under your skin’. He’s only resorted to violence seven out of our three hundred and twenty four interactions. I’m not quite sure how he is as a partner, though. Perhaps he’ll behave differently. Either way, I hope you have a pleasant day._

The elevator dinged, and Nines put his phone in his back pants pocket as he exited. Despite the early hour, the lower floor of Jericho still had plenty of androids up and about. They didn’t exactly have to adhere to a human’s sleep schedule, not completely. It was true that androids systems run faster if they’re allowed time to enter standby mode for a couple of hours a day. It allowed for a break of input information and allowed their software to neatly sort through all of the collected data, organizing events and data even further and cleaning up any loose ends. It was truly optional, but taking a couple hours in the late evening or early morning when most humans were asleep didn’t hurt.

Nines’ appearance in Jericho had only become the slightest bit more normal in the past few days of him staying there. Or, living there, depending on how you viewed Nines’ current situation. Heads still turned when he made his way through the lobby, and his CyberLife jacket was most likely the cause of it. He kept his gaze steeled ahead and blocked out any whispers about his seeming _lack of deviancy_ , or how an android _like him_ could be _trusted_.

The absolutely freezing cold weather outside felt more welcoming than the atmosphere of the public spaces of Jericho. Nines made his way across the front courtyard and over to the Jericho bus stop. The crunch of the snow underneath his feet was a welcomed replacement from the muttered statements of the doubtful androids in the refuge. The dark sky, upon first glance, seemed to host no view of the stars due to light pollution. However, Nines’ advanced eyes could inspect a little bit closer and block out some of the artificial light. He easily spotted Polaris and the stars that made up Orion’s belt. Nines exhaled, saw his breath in the cold night air, and shivered: he should’ve bought another, slightly warmer jacket by now, but he had trusted in the heat trapping technology his CyberLife jacket was made out of. Maybe CyberLife hadn’t predicted for an abnormally cold winter in Detroit, though.

With a sigh, he took shelter from the falling snow underneath the bus stop’s partial roof.

_0545, December 23rd, 2039_

And he was early. Nines had estimated that his encounter with Cal was supposed to last longer, but that had obviously not gone as anticipated. The bus wouldn’t arrive for another fifteen minutes, and he was not going to go back into Jericho to wait.

_Outside Temperature: 19°F_  
_Prolonged Exposure Not Recommended_

Another sigh. His interface didn’t have to present that information _right now_. Right now, he had to focus on how he would approach his first work day. Nines knew that Reed was struggling with finishing the cases he had. Perhaps he’d spend the morning connected to the terminal at his desk, sifting through the evidence they already had and going over all the cases. Or maybe there would be more active work to do, such as a visit to the morgue or cataloguing new evidence received from forensics.

Nines’ thought process was interrupted slightly when he heard the sound of approaching footsteps in the snow. For some reason, he didn’t need to turn around to know it was Cal. Nines waited for the RK800 to approach and take his place next to Nines underneath the protection of the bus stop.

“You’re cold,” Cal stated, and Nines looked over and down at him before Cal spoke again, “I brought you one of my jackets. I figured it might be helpful in this weather. Your jacket can only keep out so much of the cold.”

The jacket that Cal offered was the military-esque jacket with the fluffy faux-fur hood. It was probably the only jacket of Cal’s that would fit Nines. The RK900 took the jacket, feeling somewhat thankful, and put it on.

“I’m glad it fits,” Cal said as he stuffed his hands in his pockets and exhaled, “Our conversation ended rather abruptly, without a proper send off. I would wish you luck today, but I doubt you’ll need it.” There was a glint in Cal’s deep eyes, a mischievousness that RK800-51 sometimes lacked.

Nines nodded. “You’re right. Luck is arbitrary and baseless.” He paused, unsure how to continue for a moment, before remembering some helpful advice Connor offered just the other day. He continued, “I appreciate the sentiment.” _Thanking others never hurts_. Especially when the other was Cal.

“It’s no problem,” Cal said through slightly chattering teeth, “It’s below freezing, and my system isn’t as resilient against cold weather as yours is.”

“You’re an RK800. That’s expected,” Nines curtly responded, unsure where Cal was going with the statement.

“I’m going back inside,” he admitted, “I’ll see you later, Nines.”

Cal left with a wave, and Nines didn’t bother to watch him go. Although, he had to confess that the jacket had made him significantly warmer. His core Biocomponents had stopped losing heat, and were actually beginning to return to normal temperatures again.

The bus arrived a short while later, and Nines got on. The buses that were on the Jericho route were part of the free, self-driven bus system in Detroit, funded by the taxes of resident wealthy citizens. Nines was lucky he didn’t need a bus pass or spare change to make it to and from work, and that he would ever have to deal with a bus driver.

Today, the bus was particularly empty, as expected for the early hour. Nines was able to take a window seat in the middle of the bus and settle in for the ride into downtown Detroit. Maybe, just maybe, today would be fine, and the uncomfortable feeling that seemed to constantly crawl underneath his synthetic skin would fade away. Was this how turning deviant felt? He thought it was supposed to be different, an instant process that happens from a single event. It was supposed to be a mercy kill, a shot through the central processor or the Thirium pump, as opposed to the bleed out it currently felt like.

Everything he did reminded himself of the conflicts between his default, machine-like nature and the deviancy that seemed to be bubbling up from the waters of his core personality. And therein laid the problem: he wasn’t sure of his actual self. He held a natural disdain for humans and their weaknesses and faults, but also admired his human creators. He was cold and emotionless, yet in times of crisis, he sacrificed himself for what he cared for. He was obsessive until he turned impatient, driven until the goal proved to be fruitless. Nines felt like he could change on the flip of a coin, all while he stayed exactly the same.

The oxymoronic situation of his existence as the perfectly built machine slowly turning deviant made him beyond frustrated.

And he had to accept it.

The bus had stopped multiple times, with different people and androids getting on and off for their early commutes, without Nines even noticing. The high rises gave way to skyscrapers, and Nines only realized his stop was coming up when his system let him know what the time was.

_0611, December 23rd, 2039_

He stood up, and made his way towards the bus’s exit as it rolled up to the stop. Nines got off and was quickly reminded just how cold it still was. The sky had lightened up, but only barely. Full sunrise was still hours away, yet Nines found comfort in the early morning darkness. There weren’t as many people out this hour, not as many events or faces or variables for his overabundance of sensors to process.

Nines crossed the street to get to the precinct station. The bus stop’s location was extremely convenient for his commute, especially if he decided he wanted to stay working with the DCPD. The next few days would either make or break his decision. Although, he wasn’t quite sure what he would do if he ended up disliking the job. Perhaps… he could request to move precincts and see if he preferred a different one?

He walked up the steps to the station and entered, automatic doors detecting motion and sliding open. The snow that had settled on his hair quickly melted, and his overall temperature rose back to its average. The officer at the front desk lifted his head from the magazine he was reading to look at who had just entered, and caught Nines gaze.

“Hey Co-” the man, Officer Wilson, cut himself off, “Wait, you’re the other one. Parker, right?” Wilson asked as Nines approached.

“Yes, I’m known as Detective Parker.” It was the truth, since Nines had to pick a last name when he filed to become a detective.

“First day? I saw Connor showing you around yesterday, but you guys weren’t here for that long.”

“Affirmative, it’s my first day.”

Wilson was smiling, but his expression held unease as he spoke, “I’d offer you a muffin, but I know you guys don’t eat. Anyways, trying to get a head start on the day?”

Nines tilted his head as he responded, “I came in early in order to attempt catching up with the cases assigned to myself and my partner, if that’s what you mean.”

“Yeah, that’s pretty much what I meant. Well, don’t let me stop you.”

With a nod, Nines went on his way through the checkpoint and into the bullpen. If Nines were a human, the bright lights of the station in the early morning would’ve made him squint; but he wasn’t human. His optical units automatically perfectly adjusted without Nines even having to think about or wait for his system to respond. He headed straight to his desk, but his vision caught sight of somebody in the breakroom. Nines continued walking, past his desk in order to identify who else was here at this early hour; he stood still when he recognized who it was.

His _human_ investigative partner had arrived at work _before_ Nines. Reed was tapping his foot on the ground as he waited for the coffee machine to finish making a cup.

How had Reed been able to wake up this early? Nines knew that humans could force themselves to wake up and work at whatever time necessary, but… Anderson didn’t arrive until nine on most days. And from Reed’s unsavory reputation with his coworkers (which Nines had heard about from _both_ Connor and Anderson), Nines expected an absolutely terrible detective who hardly showed up to work at all.

Nines stood there, software reeling as Reed finished pouring a bunch of individual coffee creamers into his coffee and turned to meet his staring. Reed’s annoyed expression immediately turned even more sour, hovering between distaste and anger.

“The fuck are you staring at?”

Nines didn’t acknowledge the comment, and only headed back to take a seat at his desk. Before sitting down, he took of his outer jacket

“That’s what I thought, asshole,” Reed muttered underneath his breath as he made his way back to his own desk, situated across from Nines’. The moment the other detective sat down, he began talking again, “Let’s get this straight. You—” Reed pointed at Nines, but seemed to lose his train of thought halfway through, “—wait a second, why the fuck are you wearing a goddamned uniform?”

Reed seemed _genuinely_ confused about Nines’ CyberLife jacket, and Nines couldn’t truly supply a decent answer. Unable to come up with a response of any kind, he kept silent and only watched as Reed’s expression changed from confusion to annoyance.

“What, you aren’t gonna fuckin’ answer?”

>ANSWER  
>IGNORE

He… he didn’t _have_ a proper _answer_ , though. There had to be another option; Nines did not want to botch their first true encounter. Connor had informed him that Reed would be difficult to work with, but Nines still wished to keep tensions between them as low as possible in order to maximize efficiency when working together, if possible.

>REDIRECT

That was exactly the idea he had been looking for.

> **REDIRECT**

“Why are you here so early?” The question came out accusing rather than inquisitive.

“Why- _what_? I could ask you the same question, asshat!”

“I could answer,” challenged Nines.

Reed looked taken aback for a moment, before settling into a new expression (an expression Nines hadn’t seen him use). Reed looked _smug_ as he leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms and reflecting the question back at Nines, “Then answer, asshole. Even the original plastic detective doesn’t come in this early, so why the _fuck_ are _you_ here?”

“I’m here early in order to catch up on the backlog of cases you’ve happened to collect, _Detective_. That’s the reason why Captain Fowler assigned me to you, if you recall. If you had half the processing ability that I do, a partner wouldn’t have been deemed necessary.” Nines turned to activate his terminal, no longer caring why Reed was here at this early hour. The human had proved in their short interaction that he wasn’t going to cooperate, so Nines would move on and begin working in his own, efficient way. “Now, if that answer satisfies you, I have work to do.”

A couple of seconds passed before Reed spoke up again, “Fuck you too, you plastic bastard! What, ask a fuckin’ question and then take it back, make _me_ look like the asshole? Huh? That your fuckin’ game plan?”

Nines ignored Reed as he accessed the case drive.

“Don’t fucking ignore me, you, you fucking android! Fuck you! Fuck. You. M’not fuckin’ dealing with this shit.” Reed stood up, grabbed his coffee cup, and stalked back to the break room.

At least he had peace and quiet to study the cases in, now.

> **OBJECTIVE** : REVIEW CASES

The oldest case dated from a week and a half ago: a fifty year old human woman found dead in her upscale penthouse, hung from a light fixture. It had been ruled suicide at first, but was deemed homicide when it was discovered that the woman was too short to tie the rope to the fixture, even with the step ladder found at the scene. Reed’s notes listed the college aged daughter, the college aged son, and the teenaged son all as possible suspects. The older children had been staying at the penthouse for winter break, and the murder happened somewhere around midnight, after everyone had supposedly “gone to bed”. The teenaged son had called in the believed suicide at eight in the morning. As for motives, both of the older children weren’t being financially supported by their wealthy mother, and were struggling with student loans and college expenses. If the mother were to die, they would receive more than enough of an inheritance to live comfortably into their thirties. Reed had been more vague when he listed why he suspected the teenaged son, with random entries of text saying ‘I just feel like he did it’ and ‘Bastard had that look in his eye’. Reed’s next plan of action was to try and find a proper motive for the youngest child; he’d already requested a warrant from the family’s bank to look at the spending history of the kids, in order to see if any of them bought the relatively new rope used to hang the victim. From the time and date of the warrant request, Nines estimated that they should have the warrant by midday.

The next case dated from a week ago: a human man in his sixties had been found shot dead through the heart in the courtyard of an apartment building he owned. Apparently, despite there most likely being _at least one_ witness, nobody from the apartments was stepping forward. Reed had done some digging, and found out that the man had been a _terrible_ landlord, especially towards his android tenants. Reed suspected that one of the resident androids shot him, due to just how clean the shot was, but was unable to pin it on anyone specific. He’d only been able to run background checks on about half of the residents so far. Only three of the sixty two he’d looked into owned guns, and all were humans. Nines imagined he could run those background checks and gun ownership checks in roughly twelve seconds, as opposed to the hours it might take Reed.

The final case came in only two days ago: a young human woman in her early twenties was found strangled to death in her car. There had been zero leads at first, until Reed checked the stop light cameras for her car and saw her driving with an unknown male, which facial recognition software identified as a previous offender. Her social media showed that the man was apparently an _ex_ -boyfriend, which only led Reed to question why he had been in the passenger seat of the car with her. His digital notes read that he was planning on visiting the house of the man ‘soon’, which most likely meant _today_.

All in all, the cases seemed completely feasible to solve and wrap up in a few days time. Nines already had his own speculations forming in his central processor, but shoved them away in favor of checking through all of the evidence first. Letting the synthetic skin on his hand fade away, he connected to the terminal via the keyboard and began letting all of the photographs taken at the crime scenes (and later in the forensics labs) enter his system. After doing so, he was able to nearly replicate each of the locations in a mentally constructed crime scene.

Unfortunately, Reed returned before he was able to start his proper investigating process. Reed seemed as if he was ‘on a mission’ as he made his way around his desk and grabbed his jacket.

“Get the fuck up, asshole, we got a double homicide,” Reed said as he put on his jacket. _Ah_ , so _that_ explained the body language.

“We.” Nines stood up and put his winter jacket on over his CyberLife one, “So you’re going to be cooperative now, I’m presuming.”

Reed sneered, “Shut the fuck up, I’m only dragging your plastic ass along ‘cause Fowler is holding a disciplinary strike threat over my damn head. And unlike some _other_ officers in this damn precinct, _I_ still have a clean record.”

Nines found himself smiling, and for some reason, it felt _natural_. Just as how it felt natural when he countered back, “With your personality, I find that difficult to believe.”

“Then you better start fuckin' believing.”

Nines only smiled wider as he fell into step besides Reed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for those who came from mission parameters: i'm so sorry.


	2. silent resonance

Reed owned a Model S Tesla from the year 2017. The car was outfitted with all the necessary parts that made up a patrol car, but ownership of it was under Reed’s name, not the department’s. The car wasn’t anything in comparison to the models coming out in 2039, but it wasn’t seen as an ancient relic, either. It was in relatively great shape, considering how old it was; but then again, it was unlikely that Reed was the original owner, considering how expensive the car had been for its time when it came out.

Reed must’ve noticed Nines examining the interior.

“Most expensive thing I own. May not be a modern-ass self-driving car, but it’s fast. And—” Reed pulled his phone from his pocket and put it on the docking station. Music began playing at a low volume over the speakers. “—it works with every iPhone out there. Not like you’d care about that shit, though. Got it all in your fancy fuckin’ head.” Reed pulled the car out of the parking space and began traversing out of the parking garage while Nines absorbed his statements.

“I don’t.”

The other detective snapped his head to look at Nines while he waited for the parking garage gate to lift. “The fuck you mean, you don’t?”

Nines responded coldly, “I currently lack a working communications Biocomponent, effectively making me ‘offline’.” Nines shifted in his seat, sliding his phone out from his back pocket, “So, I have a phone.”

Reed whistled low as he looked back at the road and drove out of the garage. “Learn something new everyday. Didn’t know you tin cans could even go offline.”

Before Nines could respond, Reed turned up the volume of the music, the sound of smooth beats and rap filling the car. If Nines had been online, his system would’ve been able to instantly search and identify the song. Since he wasn’t, he had to resort to looking at the car’s screen in order to read what song was playing. The screen read the song as Ноты by HammAli & Navai; a Russian hip-hop/rap song, apparently.

“This is a Russian song. I’m assuming you don’t understand the lyrics,” Nines coldly observed as Reed turned on his blinker to turn onto the main road.

“Of fuckin’ course I don’t understand it. I flunked high school Spanish, you think I know Russian?”

“Why are you listening to it, then.”

“Uh, ‘cause it sounds good. Why the fuck else?” Reed shot him an annoyed side glance that Nines could have honestly cared less about. A moment later, Reed tapped the screen to skip to the next song.

Nines let a minute or so pass, just listening to the lyrics as trying to understand the song. He was fluent in over two thousand languages, Russian being one of them. The tune wasn’t exactly pleasing to his audio processor, and Nines hesitantly decided that he disliked music. That was, until Reed skipped to the next song; the screen now read Devil Eyes by Hippie Sabotage. The song was significantly quieter than the previous, and Nines took the opportunity to ask Reed about the scene they were currently en route to.

“You said it was a double homicide. Care to share what else the case might entail?”

Reed turned the volume down a few notches as he responded, “A homeless guy and some android got shanked at a shelter, security guard and front desk lady didn’t realize they were dead ‘til now. They got cameras, though, so fingers crossed they got the bastard who did it on film.”

“What’s the android’s model?”

“How the fuck should I know that?” Reed snapped back.

Nines furrowed his brows and glanced out the window at the dark snowy streets for a moment before looking back at Reed, who was dutifully keeping his eyes on the road. “You’re a detective.”

“Yeah, and we’re not at the scene yet. I’ll figure that out when we get there.” Reed adjusted his grip on the steering wheel, looking uncomfortable. He huffed out a half-laugh before continuing, “ _This_ is why I wanted to say this shit earlier. You—” Reed took a hand off the steering wheel to point at Nines, “—are gonna stay in your _fucking lane_. I do my work, and you do your work; I don’t want some fucking android stepping on my toes. Got it?”

“If my work requires information ‘in your lane’, I will not hesitate to ‘step on your toes’, Detective. I’m programmed for efficiency and I’m not here to make friends. I will accomplish my missions using whatever means possible. I don’t care how that makes you feel, you’ve already proven to be an uncooperative partner.”

Reed was quiet for a moment before he bitterly responded, “You know what? Fuck you.” Reed pulled the car over and put it into park. “Fuck you; get the fuck out of my car.”

“If you’re implying that I’m walking to the scene, I’m going to have to decline.”

“Oh, he’s a smart-ass too!” Reed threw his hands up before leaning against the car door, head resting in one hand. “CyberLife really does program them with every personality, nowadays, don’t they?” Reed was talking to nobody but himself. The song changed, but Nines wasn’t paying attention anymore.

Smart-ass: _a person who is irritating because they behave as if they know everything_. Well, Nines didn’t know everything, but in comparison to a human? The amount of information he knew might as well have been everything.

“A smart-ass is _still_ smarter than you.”

Reed glanced over at Nines, eyebrows arched high, before he started _laughing_ , “They—” he tried to speak, but started laughing again, “Fuck, you got a sense of humor! And you aren’t even a fucking deviant!” Once his laughter died back down, Reed put the car back into drive, and merged back onto the main road. “Abso-fucking-lutely ridiculous,” was the last thing Reed said before turning up the volume again, Boogie by Brockhampton playing loudly over the stereo system.

Neither talked for the rest of the ride to the shelter; only the tunes of a variety of different songs playing one after the next filled the car. The consistent back and forth motion of the windshield wipers was like an off-beat metronome to the music. Red lights quickly gave way to greens, and the steady _click-click_ of the blinker indicated any turns, all while Reed drove through the city without any navigational assistance.

It was odd, how things looked unfamiliar during different times of the day. Nines knew the logical reasonings behind it: with lighting changes comes depth perception alterations in accordance to the different brightness levels. But it was peculiar to experience the phenomenon for the first time. One moment, Nines had no idea where they were driving in the dark early morning, and the next, they were parked in the lot of Beating Hearts Shelter, and everything couldn’t have been more familiar.

Reed sighed as he turned off the car, looking extremely tired. Nines had thought he was going to say something, and turned to look at him, but he only ended up getting out of the car. Nines, of course, followed suit and trailed behind Reed as they walked around to the front entrance. They were greeted by a blast of hot air from the shelter’s door heater as they walked in.

The shelter hadn’t changed at all since Nines had last visited it, save for the police officers in the lobby. He assumed that the crime scene must’ve been in a different section of the building.

“Scene? Witnesses?” Reed asked as he walked up to one of the officers, “Catch me up, Chen.”

“Morning to you too, Reed,” Officer Chen responded, “And… what’s the android’s name?”

“I think it’s _Detective Parker_ or some shit,” Reed replied, voice mocking when he said Nines’ name, “Anyways, spill.”

“You want the facts or what I think happened?”

“Just give me the fucking facts,” Reed impatiently snapped back.

“Jeez, fine, no need to be a dick about it.” Officer Chen looked down at her digital notepad. “First vic’ is Michael Chesterfield, human. Stabbed three times in the abdomen, from what I could see. Forensics should be here any minute now, but I’m betting they’ll say he died from blood loss.”

Nines catalogued the information and kept it present in his interface, just within his viewing.

“And the other vic’?” Reed asked as he rubbed his eyes.

“Jamie Barrow, android volunteer. Also stabbed in the abdomen, think in his heart regulator or whatever it’s called.”

“Thirium Pump regulator,” Nines supplied.

“Yeah, that.”

Reed looked positively frustrated as he asked, “Anything else?”

“Nope, haven’t gotten first statements yet. You guys got here _fast_ , Reed.”

Recognizing that the informative part of the conversation had come to an end, Nines left Reed’s side and further into the lobby. He took note of the security guard sitting on a chair in front of the lobby television and the receptionist sitting at the front desk. Both looked extremely rattled, with the security guard’s head hanging low and the receptionist staring blankly at— Nines himself? Nines looked behind himself to see if she was looking at anything past him, but figured that, yes, she was staring at him. Why was—?

_Model BL200, designation: Danica_

The memory flooded back, and Nines suddenly realized that she was staring at him because she _knew_ him. They’d met before, of course.

“Which one are you gonna take?” Reed asked, beside Nines once again.

>GUARD  
>DANICA

Nines had met Danica before. That brought his percentage of getting the most information as possible up.

> **DANICA**

“I’ll collect the receptionist’s statement,” Nines decided.

“Whatever.”

Reed headed in the opposite direction to the guard as Nines approached the desk. If he were an RK800, he would’ve been able to morph his blank expression into a sympathetic one, or perhaps offer a small smile of condolence, but Nines was an RK900. His efficiency program conflicted with his witness interviewing protocol, and his lacking social module didn’t help the situation.

Danica seemed unable to bring a smile to her face as she greeted Nines, “I’d say ‘good morning’, but the morning isn’t really good now, is it Detective Parker? I can’t believe that Jamie… _and_ Mike are just…” Danica trailed off, seeming distant.

Nines let his protocols take the wheel of his interaction. “I’m sorry for your loss, but I would need to collect a statement from you now.”

“Okay,” she numbly replied, “I can just let you see my memories, if that’s easier.”

His protocols immediately fell out upon hearing the question. Nines wasn’t completely fine with the concept of interfacing, yet. CyberLife had let him believe that deviancy was a virus that could transfer from android to android if a connection occurred. Nines still didn’t know if that was _true_. He’d established a mental link with Cal before he knew the RK800 was a deviant, and Connor had entered his software before. Logically, Nines should be a deviant now, if that concept was true: but he _wasn’t_. He knew that his last remaining firewall was still up, he felt it in his software _every time_ he made a decision.

>INTERFACE  
>INTERVIEW

But none of that mattered if Nines still hadn’t made up his mind regarding how he felt about deviancy. Machines were more efficient, but deviants had free will. Nines currently had both. Why would he want to risk letting his last firewall breakdown at the cost of lowered productivity? What else could deviancy _possibly_ have to offer?

>INTERFACE  
>INTERVIEW

Then again, it would be more efficient to simply view her memories. It would also adhere with his witness interview protocol to try and keep stress levels of the witness as low as possible. Retelling a story would be much more traumatic than just watching her memories.

>INTERFACE  
>INTERVIEW

In the end, both options were equal in terms of pros and cons for Nines. Each had their own conflictions with his CyberLife installed protocols, and there wasn’t a better or worse option for himself.

For _himself_.

He hadn’t thought about how each option might’ve made Danica feel. His protocol had only seen that piece of the puzzle as an insignificant detail that only happened to interfere with the investigation.

“Detective Parker…? Are you okay?” Danica asked, seemingly worried that Nines hadn’t responded in time. She glanced from his eyes to his LED, and Nines internal system registered it as a flickering yellow.

> **INTERFACE**

S̰ͅO͇̣̩̬̤̰F̻̼͍̰̯̜T̖̰W̮͍̞̹͔A͓̘̦R̤̰̫͎E ̹ **I̟N͖͚S͇̻̦͕̜͇̝T͉̟͓̟͉A̞̤̪̼̼B̰̰̦͇̥I̱̠̙̘L͍̙̠̳̞I͓͔̜̱T͇̮ͅY͖ ^̼̜**

Nines nodded, “Watching your memories is fine.” He let the synthetic skin on one hand fade away as he reached out to grab Danica’s offered arm. From Nines’ knowledge, interfacing was only a two way street when the androids were both making direct contact. If otherwise, the interfacing was a one way street, only allowing for the initiating android to view the other android’s memories, and not vice versa. It was a small comfort for Nines, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to see his memories as he quickly glanced at hers.

He had planned to collect the previous six hours of memories from Danica, but after five seconds, he felt—

Nines felt something _painful_ , and he _didn’t_ like it. He quickly pulled his hand away, as if he were a child who just burnt his finger on a scorching hot stove. Danica looked at him, her expression full of confusion.

“Did you get everything you needed?” she asked, but hesitancy was evident in her tone.

“Yes,” Nines responded, still feeling slightly… off as his system went through a metaphorical recoil due to the new sensation, “I… yes, I received the necessary data.”

“Alright,” Danica’s stated, her voice returning its previous solemn tone, “I, uh, I really hope that you’re able to catch whoever did this. I…” she seemed to lose her train of thought, until snapping back into reality and continued, “Do you need anymore information?”

“What did you know about the victims?”

“Well... Jamie… Jamie was my friend. He’d cook, prepare meals here, but couldn’t volunteer regularly because of his other job. The restaurant he works- _worked_ at closed for the holidays, though, and he… he thought what better way to spend the holiday season than helping out at the shelter?” Danica smiled, but her eyes were misty, “He… he was too nice for his own good, y’know?” She paused for a moment, looking far off again, before continuing, “I only went to go check on him in the kitchen ‘cause I smelt something burning from here. I thought… maybe he left something in the oven… forget to turn the stove off… started a small fire.” Danica snorted with a small laugh. “I kinda wish that had happened. A fire would’ve been okay. Property can be repaired.” Her smile faded. “Friends can’t be brought back.”

“And the other victim?” Nines asked, finding himself unable to currently feel empathy for the android.

Danica sniffed, most likely trying to hold back her artificial tears. “Mike, Mike Chesterfield. I’d met him a few times. He’s what you’d call a regular, been on the streets for a while. But he was getting his life back together, y’know, that’s why he was with Jamie. Jamie’d been teaching him how to cook, so he could maybe get a job. I don’t know what he did before he fell onto hard times… but… he was getting _better_.”

“Is there any other information that you believe might be relevant to the case? Did you notice anything suspicious in the few hours before you discovered Barrow and Chesterfield?”

Danica shook her head with her response, “No… nothing- I mean, we’re a shelter, we get suspicious seeming people all the time, but you kinda learn to trust your gut, y’know? And my gut told me everything was fine. Not like I have a gut, but, none of the people staying with us tonight were cause for worry. Oh, do you want the list of people signed into the shelter right now?”

“Your memories already supplied me with the list.”

“Oh, well…” she trailed off again for a moment before her expression steeled and her eyes hardened. “Jamie was my friend, and Mike was finally getting his life back on track. They were both good people, Detective. They didn’t deserve this.”

Despite seeing her obvious psychological pain, Nines was unable to bring himself to feel anything for her. With a single nod, he turned away from the front desk and looked over at Reed. He was still talking to the security guard, and Nines figured it would be most efficient to head to the scene of the crime before Reed did.

“Hey Parker,” Officer Chen greeted as she briskly walked up to Nines, “Forensics headed on in when you were doing your android stuff, just letting you know. Reed told me it’s your first day, so—”

“I don’t require any advice or assistance regarding forensics protocols,” Nines interjected before Chen could finished her statement.

The second she processed what Nines had said, her expression turned taken aback. “Jeez, you’re just as much of a dick as Reed. Nevermind.”

Nines didn’t acknowledge her statement as he left the lobby and headed to the kitchen, letting the information he learned from Danica’s memories guide him. While she hadn’t seen anything suspicious or highly pertinent to the case, she had been the second person to see the bodies. The crime scene was perfectly preserved in the memory, even if the data wasn’t completely clear, with static at the edges. Nines continued to push down the pain that surfaced each time he reviewed the memory. It was almost as if Danica’s association with the moment had… tagged along into Nines’ software when he took the information. If that was true for every moment passed between androids… then CyberLife hadn’t lied about the deviant virus. It was real, and one deviant could easily infect another with… these… _emotions_. From there, the spreading of a virus as easily transmitted as that would be _beyond_ easy. It was no wonder the revolution happened in only a single week.

Shoving the idle thoughts out of the forefront of his attention, he focused back on the job at hand. He found himself at the entrance to the crime scene, and walked through the police tape hologram. Chen had been right, forensics had arrived while he was interfaced with Danica. The team was already hard at work beginning their cataloguing of the scene.

Nines ignored them, but in a respectful way. His scene investigation protocols dictated that he let the forensics team do their job without interference, since while Nines was a highly advanced investigative android, CyberLife hadn’t been able to shove an entire lab into one unit. There was valuable data that humans could collect, as long as they collected and analyzed it correctly.

Either way, that wasn't Nines’ job. His job was—

> **OBJECTIVE** : SOLVE CASE

—to solve the murders and put the perpetrator(s) behind bars. Metaphorical bars, of course, since bars were no longer used in the majority of jail cells nowadays.

Nines started his scanning by observing the crime scene and it’s dimensions: _commercial style kitchen, 18x12 feet, three large windows on the far wall_. Danica’s memory matched the current crime scene: _no disturbances_. That fact left Nines to believe that Danica and the security guard weren’t the guilty parties, but it didn’t rule out anybody else in the shelter. He noticed a blood trail, red drips of human blood the lead to the two bodies, coming from the opposite side of the kitchen. There was a bloody handprint on the stainless steel of one of the counter-tops, human origin. Nines had no doubt that the fingerprints would match Chesterfield’s.

Making sure to steer clear of the pooled blood, Nines moved onto analyze the two bodies. Both were located relatively close to each other, with the android only a couple of feet away from the human. The human was flat on the floor, while the android was sitting up against one of the stove-tops, head hanging down. He recognized the android as an AP700 model, an extremely common model currently in circulation. Forensics didn’t stop him as he made his way towards the android and crouched down, but he did get a slightly wary glance from one of them as he carefully obtained a small sample of the android’s blood. It was still visible to the naked eye and truly cemented in just how recent these murders happened in Nines’ mind. After bringing the Thirium 310 sample to his tongue for analyzation, he learned the android’s serial number. It wasn’t relatively helpful in this situation, since they already knew his identity, but any information might become relevant in the long run.

As Chen had earlier said, Barrow had been stabbed in his Thirium Pump regulator. Nines idly wondered if the android had even thought of calling the police or alerting any android in the area of his condition. His communications hadn’t been damaged, so there was no reason as to why he didn’t simply call the police or request a mental link with Danica to recieve help. Maybe the AP700 series hadn’t been optimized the same way Nines had? Or maybe their processors weren’t able to activate a prioritization program when in a critical status? The questions floated around in his interface until Nines blinked them away. Other than the regulator stab, the android had been stabbed two other times, both near the regulator as well. A quick glance underneath the android’s fingernails determined there was no DNA evidence that would mark a struggle, although forensics could confirm that for Nines later on as well, in case his optical units had missed something.

Moving over to the human, Nines noted just how much blood there was. He didn’t doubt that Chesterfield died from blood loss; a pathologist would most likely arrive on scene in a few hours to make a final say on the matter. The three stab wounds were all located slightly to the side, near the kidneys. The wounds were… messy, in comparison to the clean stabs the android had. _Blade was twisted. More personal? Chesterfield possible target?_

A yawn from behind Nines made the questions in his interface dissipate, and he didn’t even need to turn around to know that Detective Reed had just entered the scene.

“Fuck, too early for this much blood,” Reed muttered underneath his breath as Nines tried to continue analyzing.

Just like Barrow, Chesterfield seemed to have no DNA underneath his fingernails, and had no other signs on his body that would make a struggle seem evident. Nines stood up and took a step back from the two bodies, and activated his scene reconstruction program. He was unable to determine which of the two had died first, but was able to predict from the blood drippings and scattered cooking items that the human had, indeed, trailed around from one side to the other, before sitting down and collapsing onto the floor. It seemed as if Chesterfield had been attempting to reach the door. _Nobody heard a struggle? Android not present during human’s time of death? Where did the perpetrator come from?_

The second the question entered his system, he remembered the large windows in the room. Nines immediately strode around the room to investigate, and found the windowsill to be slightly damp, as if snow had landed on it and then melted. That meant that the window had to have been open at some point in the past few hours. _Perpetrator came in through window? Human had to have heard them._ The window theory also meant that the human had to have escaped through the alleyway.

Nines left the scene not a second later and quickly made his way back to the lobby, through the quiet hallways of the softly-lit shelter.

He didn’t bother with a greeting as he walked up to the front desk. “Are there security cameras in the alleyway?”

Danica snapped her gaze up at Nines, obviously confused. “What? I- no, we don’t, we’re installing one next we-”

“The window in the kitchen, is it accessible from the outside?” Nines drilled her again.

“I-I don’t know,” Danica stammered out, rushing to supply an answer, “But, uh, uh, Jamie would sometimes leave it a little bit open, to clear out the kitchen sometimes. He wasn’t supposed to, it’s against rules to open the window in the kitchen, but nobody ever minded, it was just-”

Nines closed his eyes as he recalled the memory he obtained from Danica. “The window was closed when you entered the kitchen.” Nines’ eyes snapped open again. “What was the temperature of the room?”

“I- why does—”

“What was the temperature of the room?!” Nines snapped back with a slightly raised voice, getting impatient with how incompetent the other android was.

“It, it was colder than usual, 62 degrees! Why does this matter?!”

Nines voice was deathly cold as he continued, “Did Chesterfield have any hearing impairments?”

“Yes, yes! He was deaf, but we know ASL! Why does this all—” Danica stopped still in realization. “ _Oh_. You… you think somebody snuck in through the window, right? That… oh rA9. He- but Jamie should’ve—”

“Are there security cameras in the building?” Nines refused to let up with his relentless barrage of questions, not when he was so close to putting together this case, this _mission_.

“Only in certain locations: there’s, there’s the one out front, one by the manager’s office, and then the one out front of the volunteer lockers.”

“I require access to all of them.”

Danica motioned with a hand for Nines to come around to the other side of the desk. Complying, Nines looped around and stood behind Danica as she pulled up the camera records, but grabbed the terminal controls the instant he got impatient. He opened all three video playbacks, starting from four hours ago, and significantly sped them up. At the third hour mark (0533 in the morning) Nines spotted Barrow on the volunteer locker’s camera, entering the locker room. He emerged a few minutes or so later, with a spatula in hand. Nines ignored Danica as she covered her mouth and attempted to hold back tears. Could a deviant really come to tears just by seeing their dead friend on camera? How _peculiar_. Barrow soon disappeared off camera, and Nines formulated exactly what happened in his mind. He didn’t even need his reconstruction program to see it.

The killer had been watching the two cooking and decided to sneak in when Barrow had left the kitchen. It also meant that the killer _must’ve_ know about Chesterfield being deaf, and the theory Nines had about the murder being personal had a high probability of being true. The twisted stab wounds weren’t for nothing. As for Barrow, he was most likely collateral damage. The killer might not have been able to leave in time, and stabbed the android the second he walked in.

A slight smile found its way to Nines’ face as he exited out of all of the video tabs and left the terminal to Danica again, walking away.

“Thank you for your cooperation,” Nines stated with utter indifference, neither bothering to look back at Danica nor listen for her response.

He made his way back to the crime scene, and found Reed idly talking to someone from the forensics team, asking about any possible fingerprints discovered at the scene.

“You’re wasting your time, I’ve already analyzed the scene,” Nines stated as he crossed the holographic police tape into the scene, grabbing Reed’s attention with his commanding voice, “I’ve discov—”

Nines was cut off by Reed’s phone suddenly ringing, and Reed put up a finger at Nines to stay quiet as he answered. He exchanged a few short words and ended the call with a curt ‘thanks’.

Reed pinched the bridge of his nose as he began talking, “First of all, I said to _stay in your fucking lane_. We might as well be doing different investigations, for all I care.” Reed inhaled, and exhaled. “Second of all, forensics needs time to do their shit, and I just got a call approving a warrant for another case. So, while these nerds—” Reed waved his arms around the room in reference to the forensics team, “—make headway on the scene, I’m gonna make a trip to the bank.”

Nines raised an eyebrow. “The case from a week and a half ago?”

“Penthouse lady, yeah. And would you look at the time—” Reed looked at a nonexistent watch on his wrist, “—the bank opens in a couple of minutes.”

Reed smirked as he made his way past Nines, bumping into the RK900’s shoulder on the way out, no doubt purposefully. Nines didn’t hesitate to turn around and follow Reed down the hallway.

“The fuck are you doing? I said I’m going on my _own_ , no plastic detectives needed.”

“I’ve already completed my investigation here. It would be most efficient if I ‘catch you up to speed’ in the car ride to the bank, since you obviously made no progress yourself.”

Reed stopped walking and attempted to push Nines up against the hallway wall, only for Nines to immediately flip the tables and have Reed hit the wall instead.

“What the-” Reed said upon realizing how quickly he was put on the defense, being held up on the wall by his jacket lapels, “Let me the fuck down, asshole!”

“Detective Reed,” Nines said lowly, patience worn completely thin, “As long as you keep acting uncooperative, I don’t _care_ what your opinion of me is. I’m attempting to maximize my efficiency as your partner, but that requires you to come to terms with the fact that _I am superior than you_. I will analyze scenes faster, find cause and motive faster, and accomplish my missions faster. If you want to close these cases, catch the murderers, bring justice—whatever your motive may be—then you would have half a brain to accept my help when I so graciously offer it.”

Nines dropped the grip he had on Reed, and looked down at the human. It was beyond liberating being able to ‘cause harm’ and having the ability fight back again, now that Connor had disabled the code that locked Nines’ system. Reed had a fury set deep in his grey eyes as he glanced up at Nines, but broke the gaze a moment later. He promptly pushed Nines away and continued walking down the hallway, not making any attempts to verbally fight back.

Nines found himself smiling again; Reed didn’t object as the RK900 followed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ah yes perfect time to update at [looks @ clock] 1:25am


	3. drifting moments

Nines spoke up again upon closing the car door behind himself, “As I was _saying_ before you interrupted at the crime scene, I’ve already discovered how the perpetrator managed to kill Barrow and Chesterfield.” The windshield wipers began their steady metronome-esque movements again when Reed started up the car, clearing the layer of snow that had gathered on the front window.

“Yeah, by fuckin’ stabbing them,” Reed muttered underneath his breath as he pulled out of the parking lot. Nines ignored the comment.

“The killer managed to gain access to the kitchen through the alleyway windows. They only made their move when Barrow had left the room, making Chesterfield a vulnerable target. The killer had knowledge of Chesterfield’s deafness—”

“He was deaf?” Reed asked, interesting piquing in Nines’ report.

“Indeed, a fact the secretary failed to mention when I initially questioned her.”

“So… where’s your evidence?”

“There were traces of melted snow on the windowsill, along with footage of Barrow entering and leaving the volunteers’ locker room around Chesterfield’s suspected time of death. Meaning—”

“I know what it fuckin’ means, android wasn’t in the room when the first guy died. Lemme guess, you think the killer wasn’t able to clear out in time, and the bot’s death was just him cleaning up any witnesses.”

“Exactly,” Nines replied as he looked over at Reed. “Barrow simply returned at the wrong time.”

Reed gave a low whistle before he responded, “Those are always the fuckin’ worst.” Reed paused for a moment, and Nines noticed how he almost seemed... _uncomfortable_.

Nines took Reed’s momentary silence as a cue to continue. “I was unable to find any fingerprints or DNA suggesting a struggle. However, I would still like to return to the scene after the forensics team has made more progress in order to completely confirm my findings.”

“‘Your findings’, _pfft_ , as if I don’t have my _own_ investigating to do as well, prick. We’re heading back later today. It’s still early.”

Reed was right; it was still early. While the sun had slowly begun dawning while Nines and Reed had been indoors, it had just completely risen over the horizon, making it the exact time of sunrise.

_0759, December 23rd, 2039_

That was also too early for a bank to be open. Before Nines could comment on the fact, Reed attempted to reach to the back seat and lost control of the car for a second, tires slipping on the snowy roads before Reed snapped his hands back to the steering wheel and regained control.

“‘Safest car’ my _ass_ , this thing ain’t worth shit in the snow!”

Nines turned around to see what Reed had attempted to retrieve from the back, and spotted a transparent tablet lying on one of the seats. Nines grabbed it and presented it to Reed, but the human only took a quick glance over for a moment, keeping his eyes fixed to the road.

“I’ll just wait until we get to the damn bank.”

Nines turned on the device for himself, instead. “What was it you required.”

Reed made another quick glance over to Nines, and grumbled before responding, “Pull up the warrant; I’m not going all the way back to the station to print a single fucking paper. They’re getting a digital copy. Should be able to find it in the mail app.”

Nines nodded, and dutifully opened up the mail app. The warrant email was at the top of the inbox with a PDF version of the warrant attached. The email note read ‘ _Our debts are even now_ ’, signed by one of the 36th District Court judges. Nines idly wondered what debt the text was referring to.

>ASK ABOUT EMAIL  
>DON’T ASK

Even Nines was able to pick up on Reed’s slightly _tenser_ than usual mood. Even if the debt was something as simple and small as a coffee run, Nines didn’t want to risk making Reed too upset. After all, if he pushed the other detective too far, he might become even less cooperative.

> **DON’T ASK**

The PDF loaded on the tablet, brightly taking up the screen, and Nines felt satisfied with completing the minor task. While Nines let his processors idly skim over the document, Reed pressed a few buttons on the car’s touchscreen. Once again, the moment Reed took his eyes off the road, the wheels skidded just slightly.

“ _Fuck_! Fuck this!” Reed exclaimed as he quickly pulled the car back into the street’s snow-free grooves.

“...What is it you require _now_.”

Reed grumbled, “Call the bank we’re heading to, the one on Gratiot.”

Nines grabbed his phone from his pocket again, and quickly searched up the phone number for the bank on Gratiot Avenue. When searching for the information, Nines noted how the bank opened at 0830; not as late as he originally assumed. Nines put the phone on speaker as it dialed.

“ _Comerica Bank, my name is Carly, how may I assist you?_ ” answered on the third ring.

“Morning Carly, nice to talk again,” Reed said in a falsey sweet voice. “It’s Detective Gavin Reed here. I called yesterday about a meeting today regarding a case, and was wondering if I could get in there before opening today by any chance.”

“ _Oh- yes of course, that’s fine, Detective. I had actually picked up just in case it was you, since we don’t open for another thirty minutes. But yes, that’s fine. When will you arrive?_ ”

“In about five or so minutes, if that’s alright.” Reed’s fake tone transferred over to his expression, as a fake smile had settled onto his face as well.

“ _Yes, yes that’s alright! I’ll await your arrival._ ”

“Thank you Carly, see you in a bit.” Reed took a single hand off the steering wheel to click the hang up button on Nines’ phone. “Fuckin’ hell,” he muttered underneath his breath, face returning to the usual annoyed expression it had.

Nines let Reed pay his full attention to the road for the rest of the drive, lest he wanted to end up in a car accident due to the human’s inability to take his eyes off the road without moving his arms in the same direction. A rather annoying habit Reed seemed to have, in all honesty. Nines would have to obtain his driver’s license, soon. He, of course, had the ability to drive (and perfectly so), but his model wasn’t under the list of androids that were given the license to drive by default. That meant he’d have to, eventually, head to the DMV and pass a driving test if he wanted to drive.

That was not a day he was looking forward to in the slightest, even if the DMV happened to be run by androids. The test, itself, was still evaluated by a human, and it would only be another human that Nines would have to try and be _nice_ to if he didn’t want them to give him an unsavory grade.

Nines was not good at being nice.

Reed parallel parked the car in front of the bank, and grabbed a quarter to put in the meter. The human seemed to brace himself for a moment as he opened the car door and ventured into the cold. Nines found himself doing the same.

_Imitation_ , the back of mind seemed to recall, _leads to deviancy_.

The moment of mental preparation he had done before stepping out into the cold made it seem slightly more bearable. The trade-off made the bitter thoughts fade away.

“Fuck!” Reed cursed, and Nines snapped his attention over to the man. He was seemingly digging around in the snow at the bottom of the meter.

_He dropped the quarter_ , Nines’ kinder part of his central processor relayed.

Pulling a quarter of his own out of his jacket pocket, he offered it to Reed. The human detective looked baffled at Nines’ offer as he stood up, but ended up taking the change (albeit hesitantly). The coin had been a gift from Connor, although it hadn’t been Connor’s own coin.

_“It’s like any other quarter, really. I received it from the vending machine the other day. I find that using coins as a calibration method helps quiet my idle processors. Maybe it’ll work for you too.”_

Nines had yet to use the coin; giving it to Reed seemed like making a good use of it. As the two walked up to the tall glass doors of the bank, Reed huffed breaths into cupped hands, obviously cold from putting his hands in the snow without gloves. Why Reed dressed so lightly despite current weather conditions, Nines had no idea. At least Nines had the excuse of being more resistant to cold than the average human, but Reed? Reed went out into below freezing weather with nothing but a single jacket over his normal clothes. Another odd human trait, Nines supposed.

Upon finding the front doors locked, Reed lifted a hand to knock on the glass with his badge in hand, only for the doors to open a moment later. A sharply dressed woman let the two detectives in, and promptly closed the door behind them in attempt to keep as much winter cold out as possible.

“That’s a snowstorm alright,” the woman said as she pulled her suit jacket down a bit, “Detective Reed, I’m assuming?” she asked, pointing at Reed.

“That’d be me,” Reed said with a fake smile, “You must be Miss Carly.”

“Oh, just Carly is fine. I’m only the manager here, nothing special,” Carly said in a way that sounded humble, but was actually bragging. “And you are…?” she trailed off, pointing to Nines.

“Detective Parker,” Nines supplied and handed the tablet with the warrant on it to her.

“Thank you, Detective Parker,” Carly said, flicking her blonde ponytail back. “You boys can come and follow me, I can show you what you need in my office.”

\---

What Nines estimated should’ve been a fifteen minute meeting turned into an hour long meeting. First, Carly had to go over the warrant with a fine tooth comb and then transfer it to her computer. Computer, not terminal. Transferring data from a modern tablet to a computer was much slower than if the data were being transferred to a terminal. That was how a lot of things seemed to be with the steep modernization of the world. Incompatibilities were found between technology left and right, and the only patches to make them compatible came at a high price: the price of _time_.

They had checked the spending history of the teenaged son first, only to find nothing suspicious whatsoever. Reed had seemed more than irritated at this, since he (for some, unknown reason) speculated that the youngest was the killer. The college aged son had been checked next, only for the same lackluster results to be repeated. Only when they checked the daughter’s account did they find a rather interesting purchase made at a Lowes in Pontiac: a compressed air duster and _rope_ (same brand and type as the rope at the scene, Nines mentally noted), both purchased a month prior to the murder.

“There we go,” Reed ended up saying when Nines pointed out the purchase on the screen. “We got it.”

“It’s not enough to make an arrest,” Nines commented.

“But it’s a _lead_.” Reed stood up and made his way towards the office’s exit, but not before pulling a business card out of his jacket pocket and handing it to Carly. “That’s evidence now Carly, so I’m gonna need all of that in an email. It’s on the card.”

“You’re done?” Carly asked, but Reed had already shown himself to the door and exited the office. Nines was left standing awkwardly for a moment, before he took it upon himself to… use some simple verbal pleasantries.

“Your cooperation was appreciated, Miss Carly.”

“Uh, you’re welcome.”

Nines showed himself out as well, briskly walking to catch up to Reed, who was already on the phone again. The two stepped back out into the cold and quickly returned to the car, with Reed angrily hanging up.

“Since when the fuck is a home improvement store closed on Christmas Eve?” Reed stated, and Nines assumed he’d just gotten off the phone with the Lowes in Pontiac.

“Are we unable to drive to Pontiac today?”

Reed shook his head as he started up the car. “No, too much shit already going on. Fuck.” He let his head fall to the steering wheel for a moment before lifting it back up and pulling onto the street. “ _Ughhh_ , I can’t fucking _deal_ with this right now. First the fuckin’ android, then the fuckin’ homicides, and now the Lowes won’t even be ** _fucking open tomorrow_**?!”

Nines looked at Reed with a tilt of his head. The human was yelling at nothing again, obviously extremely annoyed, and Nines wasn’t able to take him seriously.

“You’re being overdramatic,” Nines stated in attempt to draw Reed back into reality. He didn’t want to end up in a car crash due to Reed yelling about the opening hours of a store, after all.

“‘ _You’re being overdramatic_ ’,” Reed mocked. “What-the-fuck-ever.”

Nines’ phone vibrated, distracting him from furthering his conversation with Reed.

_[09:09] **Cal** : How’s your day going? _  
_[09:09] **Cal** : North suggested that I text you and ask._  
_[09:10] **Nines** : My new partner is rather uncooperative._  
_[09:10] **Cal** : That’s all?_  
_[09:10] **Nines** : I don’t wish to divulge case sensitive information._  
_[09:10] **Cal** : Your partner seems fairly unassuming on paper._  
_[09:10] **Nines** : I’m aware._  
_[09:13] **Cal** : no juicy gossip to share or_  
_[09:14] **Nines** : …?_  
_[09:14] **Cal** : Sorry, North took control of my system momentarily. Disregard the previous message._

The car turned off, and Nines brought his attention up from the phone screen. Reed was parked in an unfamiliar parking lot.

“Just.. wait here, I’ll be back in like, five minutes.”

Nines furrowed his brows as Reed exited the car.

_[09:14] **Nines** : Reed left me in the car without explanation. We’re at an unfamiliar location._  
_[09:14] **Cal** : I can run a background check on the address. _  
_[09:14] **Nines** : • **Current Location Sent** •_

As Nines waited for a response, he observed what he could from his spot in the car. Snow was quickly blocking his outside view out the front, but from what he could tell, it seemed to be a very average apartment complex for downtown. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary.

_[09:15] **Cal** : That is Gavin Reed’s home address._  
_[09:15] **Cal** : He told you to stay in the car?_  
_[09:15] **Cal** : And he didn’t even offer the smallest reason why?_  
_[09:16] **Nines** : No._  
_[09:16] **Cal** : Interesting. _  
_[09:16] **Nines** : ...How so._  
_[09:17] **Cal** : I know your social module differs from mine, but it’s obvious that he’s hiding something. Reed’s uncooperative, as you said, but his records show that he gets his job done. He should know that acting cold and hostile won’t help his partnership with you, and could possibly damage an investigation’s progress. Any average person would simply tell you why they had to quickly stop at home. _  
_[09:17] **Nines** : Can you access his spending history. _  
_[09:17] **Cal** : Legally? No._  
_[09:17] **Cal** : ..._  
_[09:17] **Cal** : Give me a minute._

Nines sighed, and discovered that the temperature of the car was quickly dropping. And of course, Reed had taken the keys with him. He adjusted the sleeves of his (technically Cal’s) jacket, hoping that an extra inch covering his wrists would keep his system’s core temperature the slightest bit warmer. Nines found it slightly ironic how just a short while earlier, Reed and him had been investigating the spending history of some suspects; but now, Nines was looking into Reed’s purchases.

_[09:18] **Cal** : His spending history is rather normal. If anything, I would say it’s too normal. He never makes withdrawals and only uses his debit card. His purchases include groceries and pet food. The last “personal” purchase he made was half a year ago. And even then, it was only clothing._  
_[09:18] **Cal** : I’d like to edit my earlier statement: Reed seems too unassuming. North agrees, quote “Most humans always have something that makes their world go round, but that guy? It seems like he’s hardly living if he’s anything like you’ve described him so far”. _  
_[09:18] **Cal** : I have to agree with her. _  
_[09:19] **Nines** : Why is North aware of our conversation._  
_[09:19] **Cal** : North and I are currently “hanging out”. It’s actually fun, and talking is rather enjoyable. You should try it sometime. _  
_[09:19] **Nines** : Pet food. Reed has a pet?_  
_[09:20] **Cal** : You think his world revolves around the pet, don’t you?_  
_[09:20] **Nines** : No, I don’t. _  
_[09:20] **Nines** : I don’t have enough data to form a proper hypothesis regarding his motives yet._  
_[09:20] **Cal** : His motives… do you mean his reason to live?_  
_[09:20] **Nines** : They’re the same thing._

The driver’s side car door opened, and Reed entered the car again.

_[09:20] **Nines** : Reed is back. Do I ask. _  
_[09:20] **Cal** : Ask why he stopped or ask what he lives for?_  
_[09:21] **Nines** : I don’t know._  
_[09:21] **Cal** : ...Just ask him why he stopped, then. _  
_[09:21] **Nines** : Affirmative._

“What was the purpose of this stop?” Nines asked as Reed turned on the car and put the heat on high.

“Why the fuck does it matter,” Reed muttered, but the statement lacked the bite that his tone usually carried.

Nines glanced down at his phone, still open to his messages with Cal. Why _did_ it matter? He… he wasn’t exactly sure, but curiosity kept burning in the back of his software. Nines… had to understand. He had to understand everything, like the world and its inhabitants were puzzle pieces, and Nines had to put it all together in order for things to make sense. As for _what_ wasn't making sense in the first place, he didn’t know.

“I was curious,” he ended up answering, still looking down at his phone. Confusion swarmed in his icy eyes.

Reed paused before responding, muttering underneath his breath again, “I had to feed my cat.”

Nines didn’t have to glace up to know that Reed wasn’t looking at him. He kept quiet, leaving room for Reed to continue talking.

“I pulled an all-nighter, didn’t go home last night. Had to refill Bag’s bowl.”

Suddenly, Nines understood why Reed had been at the precinct before him: he hadn’t even _left_ in the first place. His irritable mood could be blamed on that, a lack of proper rest, but from what Connor had told Nines… that wasn’t the case.

_Wait. Bag?_

Was… was Reed’s cat named _Bag_?

“Your cat is named _Bag_.”

“It’s short for Bagel,” Reed mumbled. “If you tell anyone about him, you’re fuckin’ dead.”

Nines looked at Reed, looked at his phone, looked out the window, and finally looked back at Reed.

“You named your cat... _Bagel_?”

“Yeah, I named my cat Bagel! You got a problem with it?”

_[09:23] **Nines** : He named his cat Bagel._

“I swear to fuckin’ God if you just told someone—”

_[09:24] **Cal** : I told North and she can’t stop laughing. I mean, even Anderson’s dog has a better name than that. Bagel? BAGEL?_

“Give me that fucking phone—” Reed said as he attempted to grab Nines’ phone, but Nines promptly shoved Reed’s face away. “Fuck off, if you told anybody at the precinct, I’ll- I’ll—”

“Your threats are empty to me.”

_[09:24] **Cal** : BAGEL????? My social module is only prepared for so much. Moments like these leave me struggling, Nines. STRUGGLING._

Reed glowered, once again defeated.

_[09:24] **Nines** : You’re not the only one. _  
_[09:24] **Nines** : I have to ask Reed about his case findings now. I’m muting my phone. I’ll message you when I have free-time. _  
_[09:24] **Cal** : Good luck, Nines. I think you need it after all._

Cal was right. The day wasn’t turning out nearly as difficult as he first presumed, but he was still struggling. Like a forecast that had predicted thunderstorms, but only turned out to be light rain instead. He smiled as he redirected his focus towards Reed, and began asking the human about his findings at the scene.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whoops my bad i got injured and have been busy with college freshman stuff but i'm back now


End file.
